Gramophone record container



July 8, 1969 s o ET AL 'GRAMOPHONE REC'ORD CONTAINER Filed Jan. 18. I 1967 I Jul 8, 1959 WN ET AL 3,454,316

GRAMOPHONE RECORD CONTAINER Filed Jam-18, 1967 7 Sheet L of 5 Fig.3

1/1 I I v 2 1 l PB Fig. A

July 8, 159 69 G. SIMMON ET AL GRAMOPHONE RECORD CONTAINER Sheet Filed Jan. 18, 1967 Fig. 6

United States Patent 3,454,316 GRAMOPHONE RECORD CONTAINER Gerhard Simmon, 18 Waitzstrasse, 2 Hamburg-Grossflottbek, and Hans Siebert, Marl-Drewer, Germany; said Siebert assignor to said Simmon Filed Jan. 18, 1967, Ser. No. 610,168 Claims priority, application Germany, Feb. 4, 1966,

Int. (:1. Gllb 1/60; A47b 81/06 US. Cl. 312- 8 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to a stackable Gramophone record container with an edge enclosing the container bottom on three sides and having strengthening elements, and an introducing and removale slit in the fourth side.

The light sleeves in which records are normally sold are unsuitable for ordered storing of the records. Known container-like devices are suitable which have the form of stackable discs with 'a raised edge which transmits the stacking stress and on one side lacks the provision of the formation of an insertion and removal slit (German patent specifications 1,141,801, 1,169,694 and 1,179,391). These devices are however impracticable in use or do not afford the requisite protection from dust and damage. These containers are only provided for stationary storage,

An object of the invention is to provide a container for Gramophone records of the type mentioned above which not only facilitates space-saving dust protected storage, easy removal and distinct labelling, but is also usable as one-way packaging from the producer to the consumer, whilst it is simply produced as a mass-produced item, it

can be easly stored, transported in stacks and used for advertising matter.

The object is brought about in accordance with the invention by a container space which is closed olf on the upper side by a cover plate fixed firmly to the edge, takes the form of a guide for a drawer accommodating the Gramophone record, which drawer is made of relatively stifi foil which has a projecting rim on the rear edge. The inner space thus formed is provided for the accommodation of the Gramophone record. This rests on the foil formed as a drawer, the rear rim of the foil is preferably suited to the circular shape of the Gramophone. The rear projecting rim of the drawer is preferably formed by bending up the foil. This bending can be over a greater angle than 90. The bent up edge should, in accordance with another feature of the invention reach right to the record, so that'it slides along it when the drawer is moved. It can be drawn out to a certain stop by means of a labelled strip projecting forward from the container. When the Gramophone record is inserted the drawer is pushed back into the container by the pressure against its bent-up end.

3,454,316 Patented July 8, 1969 Lateral jamming of the drawer is prevented by the rounded shape of the rim fillet serving as a guide. These rim fillets are drilled at a uniform distance for the purpose of taking assembling or holding pins, which can work like press fasteners; the number of holes is dependent on the size of the container. They can be produced round or even square or hexagonal and have, however, in their lower half a slightly larger diameter than their upper half, so that the pins, which also have partly different diameters, can only be pressed in up to a given stop. The rear side of the container receives in the centre portion a slotted longitudinal recess which is intended to accommodate a grip handle. This handle is so manufactured that it fits the recess exactly and is held slightly clamped here. It can engage in a dove-tail like recess in the middle of the rear bead and be drawn out to a stop for use. Both arms of the handle project through two slits into triangular-like hollow spaces, which necessarily result from the semi= circular rear boundary fillet of the inner container space on the one hand, and from the rim fillets running at right angles to each other; the hollow spaces have the same height as the container inner space, The arms are widened at the end to prevent complete withdrawal from the container. All parts preferably consist of plastic.

The container divides into the following parts which can be assembled even by the ordinary person:

Base plate (consisting of ground plate and rim fillet), the cover plate fixed to the base plate to form the container itself,'drawer grip handle and pins.

The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 shows a container with withdrawn grip handle and uncurled pulling strips in plan,

FIGURE 2 shows a base plate with the Withdrawn grip handle and drawn in dashed lines the pushed-in grip handle and pushed-in drawer with projecting strip in plan view,

FIGURE 3 shows a view of the front side with insertion slit,

FIGURE 4 shows a view of one side with groove and drawn in dashes, holes and pins,

FIGURE 5 shows a cross-section taken along the line A-B in FIGURE 3,

FIGURE 6 shows a large-size reducing plate in plan, and

FIGURE 7 shows stacked containers of various sizes with reducing plates in perspective.

The container is bounded below and on three sides by the base plate and one of these upright rims. On four corners the base plate has grip-identations 1. The front edge has in the centre a semi-circular cut-out 2 which facilitates the gripping of the Gramophone record.

The swallow tail-like recess 4 on the sides renders possible the transport of larger stacks of containers by carrying straps put around crosswise, which straps cannot slip sdieways, since they are in the recess.

Also shown are pins 5 which are necessary for nonslip stacking until use. The pins 5 are connected to the container and can be broken OE and then placed into the holes 6.

The size of the inner space 7 corresponds approximately to the Gramophone record to be accommodated. The ground plate 8 has in the central part a slight trough-shaped recess 9 for the somewhat stronger central part of the Gramophone record. The ground plate is, however, reinforced all the way round to the rim fillet and to the front in such a way that it cannot be bent by the weight of the Gramophone record lying on it.

The part 11 of the ground plate lying in the front has unnoticeably less strength since otherwise irregularities would occur through the surrounding strips 12 of the drawer 13 (drawn in the FIGURE 2 in dashed line) and as a result the Gramophone record would not lie uniformly everywhere.

For economy of material the base plate can be produced by part perforation. Soiling of the inner space is prevented by the drawer lying below the Gramophone record and by contents labels glued onto the underside and upper side of the container.

The bounding fillet 15 opposite the introducing slit 14 fits the Gramophone record curve semicircularly, while the side rim fillets which extend at a small distance from the rim of the Gramophone record have arcuate profiles which avoid a lateral jamming of the drawer, and projections 16 which ensure a frictionless removal and return of the Gramophone record and stopping of the drawer.

The Gramophone record lies on the drawer 13. The rear end 17 of the drawer is made semi-circular in adaptation on the one hand to the curve of the record and on the other hand to the profile of the rear boundary fillet and is bent up semi-circularly to such an extent that the rim presses against the underside of the cover plate 18; this rim curvature serves the Gramophone record as an abutment. At the sides of the drawer are provided projections 19, which with their rounded-off outer edges slide on the rim fillets and in connection with the projections of the side fillets bound the clearance space of the movement.

The forward part of the drawer projects as grip strip 12 out of the container (shown in a dashed line in FIG- URE 2); furthermore it is intended for designation of contents. The strip is somewhat wider than the introducing slit and is divided up into individual sections. Before use the strip is placed upwards along its full width and by means of self-adhesive labels present in the number of the sections is bonded fast onto the cover plate. In this way they close the introduction slit and protect the contents from becoming dusty. As soon as the container is used and is to be stacked vertically, the sections which are not required are reversed inwards up to the part serving as the grip handle with the drawer out and bonded by means of the superfluous labels. The grip strips can be selected into steps on stacking (shown in FIGURE 7). It is further possible, when required, to use another section and to reverse inwardly in its place the hitherto used strip. Furthermore the introducing slit is substantially closed by the curvature of the surrounding sections forming the kink, by which is produced considerable protection against dust penetration.

The drawer can substantially be produced from a thin plastic foil. Reinforcement may be advantageous only for the bent-round rim and for the lateral projections.

The cover plate 18 closing the ground plate upwards and fixed to it needs to have only a low strength since it is hardly stressed. The cover plate has the same design as the ground plate.

The cover plate furthermore consists in the part above the introducing slit in the width of that slit, of a pocket 3 made of two layers of foil and which has a depth of about a third of the diameter of the Gramophone record. It takes the leaflet with information about the contents of the Gramophone record. The upper edge is set back a little so that easy grip of the information sheet is possible; cut-outs 23 of varying size in the middle of the front edge of the pocket of the cover plate serve the same purpose. The cover plate must not be absolutely attached to the Gramophone record container. It is also possible in the scope of the invention, and even advantageous for simple packaging if the cover plate is releasable, in which connection it can be of simple foil if necessary with board reinforcement. This latter embodiment leads on one hand to a simple packaging form, in which the cover foil can be used in the same way as information and advertisement carrier as the Gramophone record sleeves known at present and on the other hand to economy of space in the container stack, since the height of the individual container around about the thickness of the cover plate is less than in the above-described examples.

Several Gramophone record containers can be advantageously combined to form one unit, so that the base plates of the individual container spaces are at the same time the cover plates of the next below container spaces. This unit can be produced in one piece, but can also consist of several individual parts placed together.

So that only containers of the same size can be stacked one on the other, a reducing plate can be provided. Furthermore it facilitates the smooth finish of a container stack. It is produced in the four usual sizes corresponding to the Gramophone record containers, in which connection the larger reducing plates have holes 6 for pins 5 arranged in such a way, that a non-slip stacking of all Gramophone record containers of varying sizes is possible with rim closure optionally on the left or right side as is indicated in FIGURE 6 by various different dashed lines. The container can be provided with a grip 21, the ends of which can be pushed into the spaces 22. i

We claim:

1. A stackable Gramophone record container comprising (a) a base having a front edge, a rear edge, and two lateral edges;

(b) a rim enclosing said base on said rear edge and said two lateral edges so as to define a storage space in conjunction with said base, said rim being adapted to sustain stacking stresses;

(c) a drawer movable in said storage space and arranged to carry said record, said drawer being made of relatively stiff artificial foil material and having a rear edge of bent shape so as to form a substantially upright projection; and

(d) a cover plate for said storage space, said cover plate being removably attached to said rim.

2. A container as claimed in claim 1, wherein said cover plate is made of artificial foil material.

3. A container as claimed in claim 1, including lateral projections on said drawer and internal projections on said rim, said lateral and internal projections being arranged to engage each other for preventing said drawer from being withdrawn from said storage space complete- 1y.

4. A container as claimed in claim 1, wherein said drawer comprises a base portion and a front extension of a length suflicient to project from said storage space while said base portion of the drawer is received in said space, and wherein said front extension is subdivided into a plurality of strip sections, each of said strip sections being normally straight but flexible and adapted to be bent back onto and fixed to said base portion when not in use, at least one of said strip sections remaining in its straight condition to serve as a grip for said drawer and as a carrier of required information.

5. A container as claimed in claim 1, wherein said rim has top and bottom recesses and protrusion corresponding to each other to facilitate stacking.

6. A container as claimed in claim 5, wherein said recesses are in the form of holes extending through said rim, each of said holes having a portion of relatively large diameter leading to one of its ends and a portion of smaller diameter leading to the other end, and wherein a plurality of pins are provided having larger and smaller portions corresponding in diameter to the larger and smaller portions of said holes, one portion of each pin being adapted to be pressed into the end of corresponding size of one of said holes with the other portion of said pin forming one of said protrusions of the run.

7. A container as claimed in claim 6, wherein said container has additional recesses extending through its rim for accommodating .a predetermined number of said pins before insertion thereof in said holes.

8. A container as claimed in claim 1, including a carrying handle comprising a gripping bar and a pair of arms extending from said bar, said arms having enlarged ends remote from said bar, said rim being provided with recess means shaped to accommodate said arms and permit movement thereof relative to said rim while retaining said enlarged ends of the arms in said recess means.

6 References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,866,541 12/1958 Ravis 206-62 3,069,213 12/1962 Azzarri 31210 3,112,966 12/ 1963 Reid 312--10 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,179,391 6/ 1963 Germany. 192,647 12/ 1907 Germany. 34,650 10/ 1908 Austria.

BOBBY R. GAY, Primary Examiner. JAMES L. KOHNEN, Assistant Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R. 206-62 

